Fluorinated compounds are found in a diverse array of products, e.g. refrigerants, gaskets, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, surfactants, polymers, liquid crystals, anesthetics, blood substitutes, aerosol formulations and lubricants. However, conventional methods of fluorinating compounds involve the use of hazardous gases, e.g. tetrafluoroethylene (TFE). The hazardous nature of these gases has become problematic for discovery research, as gases such as TFE have become increasingly unavailable due to the risk associated with their handling.
Despite the fact that TFE can be prepared rather inexpensively on a reasonable scale from the thermal pyrolysis of waste polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the synthetic route requires temperatures in excess of 600° C. and the use of a quartz furnace connected to a vacuum manifold. Moreover, the pyrolysis route does not eliminate the detonation hazards accompanying the re-condensed TFE or the problems associated with the acute toxicity of octoflurorisobutylene, which can be formed as a byproduct in the thermal degradation of PTFE.
Other methods exist which provide TFE more expensively on a small scale; however, these methods require gas handling techniques which can complicate experimental protocols.
Thus, there remains a need for reagents which are capable of fluorinating a substrate, without the explosion hazards and toxicity associated with existing materials, methods and devices. Embodiments of the present invention are directed to meeting these needs.